This invention relates to a novel gallstone dissolver.
There are several types of gallstones, among which cholesterol gallstones, bilirubin gallstones and rarestones are well known. In Japan, the incidence of cholesterol gallstones has increased due to the recent change of Japanese food life, and reached to about 85% of the total cases of cholelithasis.
The treatments for cholelithasis are roughly classified into two groups which respectively include the surgery treatment by operation and the internal treatment by drugs, but it is advisable to treat a patient by dissolving gallstones internally as much as possible so as to avoid the agony of the patient.
However, the internal treatment currently applicable to patients suffered from cholesterol gallstones are not definitive. Those treatments using chenodeoxycholic acid and ursodeoxycholic acid have the defects of long term administration and low effectiveness rate.
As for the cholesterol gallstones remaining after operation, direct dissolvers were proposed, which include sodium cholate, heparin and d-limonene, but the results were not yet satisfactory. Namely, the solubilities of sodium cholate and heparin are in quite a low level with slow dissolving velocities, thus actually the clinical applications of these compounds were impossible. The solubility and dissolving velocity of d-limonene is better than those of the formers, but complete dissolution in the bile duct were seldomly observed during the clinical process on its administration. Further, d-limonene is defective in that it is stimulative to a patient and requires a special catheter insoluble in d-limonene.